Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Lo Chih-Chiang/Facebook
A PROPOSAL FROM KMT legislators Lo Chih-chiang, Weng Hsiao-ling, Wu Tsung-hien, and Yeh Yuan-chih would aim to change how presidential elections are held in Taiwan. In particular, the proposal would shift presidential elections in order to hold two rounds of voting.
Lo claims that the proposal would result in presidential candidates winning with absolute majorities, with members of the public voting for their most preferred candidate in the first round, and strategically voting in the second round. Lo has cited other countries in which there are two rounds of voting for presidential candidates to justify this, while also suggesting that this would resolve the political situation in which there is divided power, in that Taiwan’s executive branch is currently controlled by the DPP, but the legislature is currently controlled by the KMT through a slim majority. Lo has suggested that it is a particular and unusual malady of Taiwan that a president may take power without 50% of the popular vote.
It is unclear to what extent this proposal is supported by the KMT, though Lo claims that a majority of KMT legislators back the proposal. The other legislators who backed the proposal alongside Lo are known for their deep Blue views. Lo also claims to have discussed the idea with TPP legislators.
At the same time, one notes that Lo–who is fronting the proposal–is currently running for KMT chair and may have intended the proposal primarily to boost his election odds. The proposed changes would require changing the Constitution. Despite its majority in the legislature along with the TPP, the KMT does not hold enough seats in the legislature to accomplish a constitutional amendment of this nature.
There was no previous call from the public for a fundamental shift in the way that presidential elections are carried out, or for dramatic changes in Taiwan’s political system to be made to break the deadlock between the DPP-controlled presidency and KMT-controlled legislature. In fact, some polling suggests that the public sees the current divided state of affairs as a means of checking the power of both major parties.
It is improbable that the proposal would, in fact, heal partisan splits in Taiwan. There is no third party or independent candidate in Taiwan that would not have to orient toward the pan-Blue or pan-Green camp and, in that way, have some relationship with the larger party in that camp.
But what the KMT’s proposal could accomplish is potentially eliminating the TPP, which may be seen as splitting the vote in the pan-Blue camp in presidential elections in a manner that leads to a DPP victory. As such, even if the KMT proposal may be framed as leveling the playing field and strengthening the positions of candidates in such a manner as to get away from partisan splits, the true aim of the proposal may be to eliminate the TPP.
This would not be the first time that a KMT politician has made a left-field proposal that may have been aimed at marginalizing the TPP. In response to the recalls that the KMT faced earlier this year, at one point, Taipei mayor Chiang Wan-an argued for triggering a legal mechanism that would dissolve the legislature and lead to a new set of elections. Although the proposal was puzzling at the time, in that the KMT had a greater chance of surviving the recalls than winning a new set of legislative elections, the aim of the proposal may have been that the TPP would have been potentially wiped out in a new election. By contrast, the TPP was never at risk in the recalls because TPP legislators are all elected through party list votes. It may be, in fact, that the KMT seeks to oust the TPP, backstabbing a party that has proven a loyal ally but may potentially split the vote while claiming to strengthen it.
Regardless, the KMT has thrown out a number of proposals since the start of the Lai administration aimed at fundamentally reshaping Taiwan’s political system. This includes the controversial legislative proposals that aimed to grant new powers of investigation to the legislature by prying such powers away from the legislative and executive, legislation that froze the Constitutional Court, and attempts to shift media regulatory powers and security powers away from the executive branch of government and toward the legislature.
It would also not be the first time that a political candidate of the pan-Blue camp has proposed a fundamental change to Taiwan’s political system in order to improve their odds of election victory. This proves no different with efforts to change how presidential elections are conducted. Previously, in a similar vein, the TPP’s Ko Wen-je called for changing Taiwan’s political system to a cabinet-style system where the cabinet held executive power but was answerable to the legislature. This, too, would be a means of weakening executive power and strengthening legislative power.